Dying easter eggs
All my little sous chefs are home on spring break and I desperately need something to keep them occupied for a couple hours. I'm thinking about trying something different with dying easter eggs, but since I'm not the crafty type, I need help! Any ideas or suggestions?
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10 Comments:
Here are a few I pulled from the tips & trivia section of my web site. Have fun!
EASTER EGG IDEAS
RUBBER BAND - Twist skinny and fat rubber bands around eggs before dying to create crinkly stripes.
NATURE - Glue tiny pressed leaves, grass, herbs or clover to a dyed egg.
RUBBER CEMENT DRIZZLE - Dip a craft stick into rubber cement and drizzle a freeform design onto egg. Let dry for 15 minutes and then dye the egg. When the dye is dry, rub off the rubber cement with your fingers to reveal the design.
Q-TIP POLKA DOT - Use cotton swabs dipped in paint to make dots on a dyed egg.
ABC - Use alphabet macaroni or scrapbooking rub-on letters to spell out family names or holiday greetings on a dyed egg. Add a pretty ribbon.
SPONGE MARBLED - Cut a kitchen sponge into small strips and dip the tips into paint. Dab paint splotches all over eggs, adding and overlapping colors, until a marbled effect is achieved.
elizabethw at 2:58PM on 03/18/08
It's been soooo many years since I did this, but there was something that I did with Crayons. I thought there was a flame involved too...so maybe not such a good idea. I am an only child, so it was easy to watch just me.
There's always just plain old coloring the eggs with Crayons or pencils. Do they sell nontoxic acidfree pens for this? Or is there only dye available?
Cassaendra at 3:22PM on 03/18/08
We used to get fancy and hollow out the eggs (make a pin prick in each end of a raw egg and blow the contents into a dish, then rinse out) and paint them elaborately with acrylic paints. I have some that are decades old.
savecara at 4:02PM on 03/18/08
i'm not sure you would want little ones handling rubber cement. a less toxic way is to use wax sticks (ie white crayons) to draw designs on the egg, then dip in dye. the wax will resist the pigment and the white shell will show through. you can do this multiple times, like dip the egg in red, let dry and apply your design with the wax, then dip in blue. this gives a lovely effect.
when i was younger my aunts would make the eggs look like little mice and rabbits by gluing on ears, eyes, whiskers...good times.
protest at 4:51PM on 03/18/08
These are super-cool, but the hb eggs are peeled first. They're just gorgeous, and really easy to do: Perfect Hard-Boiled Ruby Eggs
chisai at 6:23PM on 03/18/08
The link didn't seem to work. Trying it again: perfect hard boiled ruby eggs
chisai at 6:40PM on 03/18/08
*chisai, I just clicked on your link and it says blogger not found.
*my sous chefs are 10, 11, 12, 15. If they can handle my knives and help me bbq, I hope they can can handle rubber cement. I've used crayons but never even thought of using acrylic paints, sponges, or q-tips.
evilchefmom at 6:45PM on 03/18/08
@evil - try the link I posted below my first post. That one works.
chisai at 8:08PM on 03/18/08
*chisai...those eggs are beautiful. thanks for the link.
evilchefmom at 10:40PM on 03/18/08
One year when my son was really small (3 or 4 years old?), we did eggs with non-toxic acrylic craft paints. We made sure the shells were completely intact (no cracks, etc.), put on latex gloves, put a drop or two of paint on the egg, and rolled them around in our hands until fully coated with paint. It comes out kind of mottled, like rag painting. If not already dry (they dry super fast), allow them to dry completely before adding a drop of another color (metallic gold or silver worked best), and repeat. They were gorgeous. Like little gilt jewels. In fact, we learned to hide them right before the egg hunt. Ex-hubby put them out about 30 minutes beforehand, the crows found them (especially the shiny metallic ones), and made off with several!
Because the paint is thick, it doesn't penetrate the shells, you get a very thin coat, and since it dries really quickly, surprisingly little mess. And it's not supposed to be perfect, so even really little kids can do it.
LoCo at 12:34PM on 03/19/08